{"id":168546,"date":"2026-03-19T20:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168546\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T20:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:39:07","slug":"nyc-mayor-mamdani-announcing-office-of-community-safety-to-help-deal-with-mental-health-crises-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168546\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Mayor Mamdani announcing Office of Community Safety to help deal with mental health crises"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to announce a new Office of Community Safety on Thursday, a step toward fulfilling his campaign pledge to install a new city department to handle responses to mental health crises rather than leave that largely to the NYPD.<\/p>\n

The mayor is slated to announce Renita Francois, a former city official under Mayor Bill de Blasio, as the deputy mayor for community safety, sources told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

Mamdani campaigned on the creation of a Department of Community Safety to handle mental health emergencies and lead initiatives such as gun violence prevention,<\/a> saying he would allocate over $1 billion to that agency.<\/p>\n

The new office represents a scaled-down version of that proposal, which sparked concerns about how mental health response teams would coordinate with the NYPD in potentially violent situations. The NYPD did not immediately respond for comment.<\/p>\n

The office will begin with roughly $260 million in funding moved from existing programs, a spokesperson said, adding that the mayor would add an unspecified amount more to the office in the executive budget.<\/p>\n

OCS will oversee the existing crime victim services, gun violence prevention, hate crimes prevention, domestic and gender-based violence and community mental health offices, per a copy of the executive order.<\/p>\n

The office will also coordinate the city\u2019s existing 911 mental health response program<\/a>, B-HEARD, though the program will still operate under Health + Hospitals and the Fire Department.<\/p>\n

From an administrative perspective, the office, created by executive order, is easier for Mamdani to create than a new city agency.<\/p>\n

The Mamdani administration still intends to pursue creating the agency, City Hall said Thursday \u2014 but to create a new department, they need the Council, including Speaker Julie Menin, onboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Speaker believes that NYPD officers are asked to take on too much responsibility and supports lessening the reliance on officers to respond to mental health calls,\u201d Henry Robins, a spokesperson for the speaker, said in a statement. \u201cShe will thoroughly review proposals aimed at safely achieving that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francois, who will be the administration\u2019s first Black deputy mayor, will start in the role in the next few weeks, according to City Hall. She\u2019s expected to hire a commissioner for the office to work under her.<\/p>\n

The new deputy mayor served as the former executive director of the Mayor\u2019s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety, an effort under de Blasio to reduce violence and improve safety in NYCHA developments.<\/p>\n

In an appearance on a Vital City podcast<\/a> in January, Francois said leaders should be doing \u201ceverything we can to prevent interaction with police\u201d and questioned the city\u2019s spending on the Police Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be comfortable spending double-digit billions on police officers when we have so many failing systems that could support them,\u201d Francois said.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s move was applauded by Legal Aid, which called for the mayor to divert responses from NYPD officers to peer-led teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe commend Mayor Mamdani for establishing an Office of Community Safety, a critical step toward reforming a system that has long relied too heavily on criminalization and incarceration to respond to New Yorkers in crisis,\u201d Legal Aid said in a statement. \u201cFor too long, the criminal legal system has also failed to address the underlying issues and lack of community-based resources that result in people interacting with law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

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